An Introduction to Phonetics with Elvish Writing Will Monroe Stanford Splash! April 9-10, 2016 Image credit: user “Eruhildo,” from commons.wikimedia.org 1

A Disclaimer 2

The Tengwar Image credit: (left) Lee, Alan, from tolkienlibrary.com; (right) Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel, The Return of the King, from books.google.com 3

How Tengwar Are Written Each of the main consonants has two parts: a stem and a bow. The stem can be short, extend above the bow, or extend below the bow. The bow can be single or doubled, face up or down, and be open or closed. Every main letter is a consonant; vowels are added as small marks (tehtar) above (or below) the letters. 4

Letters and Sounds of Tengwar dental labial palatal velar unvoiced t p ch k plosives voiced d b j g unvoiced th f sh (kh) fricatives voiced dh v zh (gh) nasals n m (ny) ng approximants r w y (lh) Image credit: user “Maxim Razin,” from commons.wikimedia.org 5

But Wait: There's More! 6

Dn't frgt bt th vwls... at ut it et ot 7

Dn't frgt bt th vwls... ăt ĕt ĭt ŏt o͝ot ŭ/ət aa=ä ii=ē uu=o͞o ay=ī ey=ā ow=ō yuu=ū 8

A Few More Miscellaneous Rules... Image credit: Måns Björkman, from at.mansbjorkman.net 9

Making Sense of the One Ring Image credit: Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel, The Fellowship of the Ring, from 2lincolns.com 10

Break time! 11

The Phonology of English Consonants Source: Wikipedia (Don't use this for your research, kids.)‏ 12

IPA in All Its Glory Don't worry, this won't be on the test. Source: Peter Ladefoged, UCLA Phonetics Lab (phonetics.ucla.edu). Now that's a good source. 13

The Phonology of English Vowels Source: University of Texas, Department of Linguistics 14

Vowels of the World Source: Peter Ladefoged, UCLA Phonetics Lab 15

Is That It? Consonants Vowels Other places of articulation Diphthongs Gemination Airstream clicks and pops ejectives implosives ... Vowels Diphthongs Length Nasals Voicing Tone ... 16

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